Loose tire flies through van window and exits through back door, Oklahoma photos show

A loose tire caused a dramatic crash in Oklahoma, sending a driver to the hospital, police said.

It happened Monday, Jan. 29, on Interstate 35 in Moore, according to the Oklahoma Highway Patrol. Moore is about 10 miles south of Oklahoma City.

Troopers said a tire came loose from a pickup truck traveling southbound on the interstate. It flew into the northbound lanes and hit one car before crashing into the front windshield of a transit van.

The tire traveled all the way through the van, exiting through the back and then “impacting two more vehicles,” highway patrol said.

The driver of the van was hospitalized with undisclosed injuries, troopers said.

It’s the second time a loose tire has caused a crash in Oklahoma in a matter of days.

“And that’s one statistic that we do not keep because this does not happen every day; with that being said, this occurrence is happening more and more frequently,” Trooper Preston Cox told KOTV.

The other crash happened Jan. 25 near Stroud, where a tire came off a trailer and landed on top of a vehicle’s windshield, highway patrol said. It caused the roof to collapse on the driver’s head, and she was hospitalized in critical condition.

This story was originally published January 30, 2024 at 9:53 AM with the headline "Loose tire flies through van window and exits through back door, Oklahoma photos show."